Sunday, March 22, 2020
Crucible, SheffieldDirector Robert Hastie makes the most of the now-nostalgic shared space between audience and cast
Writing a review, today, feels strange. Coriolanus was the last performan…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:42AMSunday, March 15, 2020
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghThe comic talents of Elaine C Smith and Steven McNicoll can’t save Denise Mina’s stilted, gender-switching adaptation of a Bertolt Brecht comedyBertolt Brecht and …
Linked From The Guardian at 04:24AMSunday, March 8, 2020
Storyhouse, ChesterFour female undergraduates in 1890s Cambridge struggle for equality in this buoyant production of Jessica Swale’s 2013 classroom classicA renowned expert has come to the…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:06AMSunday, February 23, 2020
Viaduct theatre, HalifaxThis adaptation of JM Barrie’s 1901 romcom doesn’t always hit the mark, but it roars to the sweetest conclusionTo some readers, the name Quality Street may conjur…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:54AMSunday, February 16, 2020
Northern Stage, Newcastle upon TyneSet against the upheaval of world events, music from folk trio the Young’uns and animation combine to tell the story of the young anti-fascist activist
…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:04AMSunday, February 2, 2020
Leeds PlayhouseDavid Greig’s 2001 drama about the doctor who founded an orphanage in the Warsaw ghetto continues to educate in this atmospheric production
The first thing we see as we ente…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:24AMSunday, January 26, 2020
Belgrade theatre, CoventryFine performances carry this tale of a young African girl’s arrival in Queen Victoria’s court interlaced with a modern family’s move from London to Cheshire
J…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:18PMSaturday, January 18, 2020
The Studio, Royal Exchange, Manchester; the Bunker; Barbican, LondonTwo young Somali women find themselves on opposite sides of the FGM argument in a fine revival of Charlene James’s 2016 …
Linked From The Guardian at 06:12AMSunday, December 29, 2019
Crucible, Sheffield; Kiln, London; Leeds PlayhouseRobert Hastie’s new Guys and Dolls is an instant classic, Mike Bartlett’s arguments are a slow burn, and for a thrilling trip to Oz, the…
Linked From The Guardian at 12:54AMMonday, December 23, 2019
Playhouse theatre, LiverpoolA cracking score and an energetic cast can’t disguise an unconvincing romance in Gemma Bodinetz’s update of the seasonal classic
Kris Kringle believes he is S…
Linked From The Guardian at 08:24AMSunday, December 15, 2019
Traverse theatre, EdinburghPu Songling’s weird stories are brought to life with a hit-and-miss mixture of cutting-edge video and live performance
A demon with a paintbrush retouches the fe…
Linked From The Guardian at 06:54AMSunday, December 8, 2019
Wardrobe theatre, BristolThe cast sinks its teeth into this extremely adult seasonal mashup of Dracula, Jack and Jill and The Sound of Music
A generalised power cut delayed curtain up(metaph…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:54AMSunday, December 1, 2019
Ustinov Studio, Theatre Royal BathHansol Jung’s tale of two lonely Koreans who meet online is witty but overstuffed with ideasWe are in Seoul. Guk Minsung is a “goose father”, one of t…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:12AMSunday, November 24, 2019
York Theatre RoyalJo Mousley and Emilio Iannucci excel in this engrossing production of Fugard’s tale of a brother and sister’s ambiguous reunion
“I am a regional writer,” claimed So…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:18AMSunday, November 17, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldSilence is both golden and frustrating in Charlotte Keatley’s play about four generations of women featuring deaf actors
Fingersmiths theatre company specialises in “w…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:18AMSunday, November 10, 2019
New Wolsey theatre, IpswichNewcomers Jim Barne and Kit Buchan have written a classic Christmas romance enhanced by confident production
“Even impossible dreams come true,” sings the wond…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:03AMSunday, November 3, 2019
Swan theatre, Stratford-upon-AvonHannah Khalil’s ambitious play, set in 1926 and 2006, struggles to dramatise questions of power and gender
A museum is a site of encounter between past and…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:36AMSunday, October 27, 2019
Paisley Arts CentreWinning performances deliver a heartbreaking and unsentimental tale about asbestos poisoning in the workplaceFrances Poet’s latest play is a condemnation of an atrocious…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:48AMSaturday, October 19, 2019
Byker Community Centre, Newcastle upon TyneThe audience is invited to attend a mock UK arms fair in this laudable but underdeveloped production
Travelling to Common Wealth and Northern Stage…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:48PMSunday, October 13, 2019
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughOliver Emanuel’s Canadian log cabin drama goes nowhere slowly
’Tis a dark and snow-stormy night somewhere in Canada. After many years of separation, a …
Linked From The Guardian at 01:06AMSunday, October 6, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldBy rendering its hero completely passive, Steve Waters loses a key aspect of Giles Foden’s novelGiles Foden describes the narrator-hero of his 1998 multiple prize-winnin…
Linked From The Guardian at 01:33AMSunday, September 29, 2019
Sherman theatre, CardiffWriting, acting and design combine brilliantly in Ed Thomas’s new, semi-autobiographical playJohn Daniel (Rhys Ifans) fears that daily wearing of his only pair of t…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:54AMSunday, September 22, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldMatt Haig converses with his younger self in this engaging take on his memoir about depression
The novelist Matt Haig wrote his award-wining, bestselling 2015 memoir about…
Linked From The Guardian at 02:42AMSunday, September 8, 2019
Royal and Derngate, NorthamptonThis fine revival of August Wilson’s 1992 play finds seven people in 60s Pittsburgh struggling with a turbulent world
Double Pulitzer prize-winning writer Au…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:42AMSunday, September 1, 2019
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn directs this excellent revival of his 1980 comedy of a family suffering a less than festive Christmas
Playwright Alan Ayckbourn remembers a …
Linked From The Guardian at 09:36AMSunday, August 25, 2019
Various venues, Derry and DonegalThe annual celebration of the work of Brian Friel carries powerful reminders of the work of building community
“Politics are so obtrusive here.” The grea…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:36AMSunday, August 18, 2019
Wharfhouse, Cropredy, OxfordshireMikron’s second world war show follows two female navy recruits as they battle the enemy and colleagues
“Theatre anywhere for everyone, by canal, river a…
Linked From The Guardian at 05:33AMSunday, August 11, 2019
King’s theatre; Lyceum, Edinburgh; Minerva, ChichesterEnglish settlers terrorise Indigenous Australians in an unflinching production from Sydney; the aftermath of a homophobic killing is e…
Linked From The Guardian at 04:42AMSaturday, August 3, 2019
Theatre Royal Bath; Royal Exchange, Manchester; Passenger Shed, BristolRupert Everett’s astute direction of Chekhov results in a meeting of minds, and a luddite history is given a modern e…
Linked From The Guardian at 11:33AMSunday, July 28, 2019
Theatre by the Lake, KeswickLucy Kirkwood’s domestic-seeming drama has the steely underpinning of a Greek tragedy
A visitor arrives at a cottage by the sea – unexpected but not unknown. …
Linked From The Guardian at 08:48AMSunday, July 14, 2019
Crucible, SheffieldLolita Chakrabarti’s superbly acted adaptation of Yann Martel’s Booker-winner makes dazzling use of its interplay of illusions
Everything about this production is amaz…
Linked From The Guardian at 07:06AM 
